Bitmine Resumes Stock Buybacks As Ethereum Purchases Slow

Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: $BMNR) is ramping up its stock buybacks as it nears its goal of owning 5% of Ethereum’s (CRYPTO: $ETH) circulating supply. 

Questions have been raised about what Bitmine plans to do as it approaches its stated goal, with it currently owning more than 4.9% of the global ETH supply. 

Bitmine Chair Tom Lee has been cagey about what comes next for the company, other than to say it is staking its Ethereum holdings to generate yield from the cryptocurrency.

But now, it appears that the plan going forward is to ramp-up share repurchases once the 5% of Ethereum is achieved. 

Bitmine resumed its share repurchases at the end of October after a 10-week pause. 

The Ethereum treasury firm bought 2.04 million of its own shares over the past week at an average price of $22.48 U.S., spending about $45.9 million U.S. total on the buyback. 

It was Bitmine's first share repurchase of any kind since Aug. 17 of this year.

The latest purchases bring Bitmine's total stock buybacks this year to 22.9 million shares, worth nearly $400 million U.S. 

The company has said it plans to keep buying back stock when management believes its shares are undervalued.

Bitmine will likely have more cash to direct towards share repurchases once it stops its weekly purchases of Ethereum. 

The resumption of stock buybacks comes as Bitmine’s Ethereum purchases begin to slow. 

The company acquired 10,452 ETH worth $24.5 million U.S. last week, slowing from 12,535 ETH purchases the previous week.

BMNR stock has declined 48% over the past 12 months to trade at $21.73 U.S. per share.